High precision time of flight measurement system for industrial automation

ABSTRACT

A system for tracking position of objects in an industrial environment includes an interrogator, a transponder, and a processor. The interrogator transmits a signal and provides a first reference signal corresponding to the transmitted signal. The transponder provides a response signal. The interrogator receives the response signal and provides a second reference signal corresponding to the response signal. The processor determines a location of either the interrogator or the transponder, relative to the other, based on the two reference signals.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 and is acontinuation (CON) of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/181,999, entitled“HIGH PRECISION TIME OF FLIGHT MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR INDUSTRIALAUTOMATION” filed on Jun. 14, 2016, which claims the benefit of U.S.provisional application Ser. Nos. 62/175,819 filed Jun. 15, 2015;62/198,633 filed Jul. 29, 2015; 62/243,264 filed Oct. 19, 2015;62/253,983 filed Nov. 11, 2015; 62/268,727, 62/268,734, 62/268,736,62/268,741, and 62/268,745, each filed Dec. 17, 2015; 62/271,136 filedDec. 22, 2015; 62/275,400 filed Jan. 6, 2016; and 62/306,469,62/306,478, and 62/306,483, each filed Mar. 10, 2016, each of which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure generally relates to tracking objects in anindustrial automation environment, and more particularly to trackingmotion of industrial equipment or employees.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Industrial environments, such as manufacturing facilities, warehouses,fulfillment centers, etc., typically have a mix of personnel, machinery,and equipment working among and in combination with each other.Automated equipment and machinery, human-controlled equipment andmachinery, and human personnel may all move about independently of eachother and may pose risks to each other or may not perform theirfunctions in an efficient or coordinated manner. Traditional systems tooptimize operations and/or detect danger typically involve independentsensors on machinery and rules or operating procedures imposed uponhumans, all of which are subject to malfunction, error, or actions outof the ordinary. There exists a need, therefore, for a set ofcomponents, a system, and a method to increase automation and precisiontracking of operations and movement within industrial environments.

SUMMARY

Aspects and embodiments relate to tracking objects in an industrialautomation environment, and more particularly to tracking motion ofindustrial equipment or employees.

According to one aspect, a system for tracking position of objectsincludes at least one interrogator which transmits a firstelectromagnetic signal and provides a first reference signalcorresponding to the transmitted signal; at least one transponder whichreceives the first electromagnetic signal and provides a responsesignal; the at least one interrogator including a receiver whichreceives the response signal and provides a second reference signalcorresponding to the response signal; and a processor which in responseto the first reference signal and the second reference signal determinesa precise location of at least one of the at least one interrogator orthe at least one transponder; wherein the objects to be tracked includesat least one of a part of one of a human, a piece of equipment, and anitem; wherein the system is configured to determine a precise positionand location of the human's body movement in cooperation with the pieceof equipment or item; and wherein one of the at least one interrogatorand the at least one transponder is configured to be mounted to theobject.

In some embodiments the at least one interrogator includes a pluralityof interrogators in fixed positions. In some embodiments the at leastone transponder includes a plurality of transponders in fixed positions.In some embodiments one of the at least one interrogator and the atleast one transponder is integrated into a wristband. In someembodiments the at least one interrogator and the at least onetransponder is integrated into a personal digital device. In someembodiments one of the at least one interrogator and the at least onetransponder is configured with a feedback mechanism. In some embodimentsthe feedback mechanism includes one of a colored LED, a speaker, amicrophone, a wireless beacon, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and ahaptic device. In some embodiments the system is configured to signalthe feedback mechanism to give the human real time feedback regardingtask performance. In some embodiments the feedback mechanism isconfigured to provide at least one indication of critical feedback andat least one other indication of routine feedback. In some embodimentsthe system is configured to provide the human with real timeinstructions. In some embodiments the system is configured to monitorand store work patterns of a limb of the human for one of analytics,performance monitoring, and training. In some embodiments the system isconfigured to track the piece of equipment or item for performancemonitoring in a work environment. In some embodiments the workenvironment is one of a pick and pack environment, a warehouseenvironment, and an assembly environment. In some embodiments the limbis a person's hand and the system is configured for tracking theperson's hand and the item to the selection of items from bins toprovide real time feedback in a pick and pack environment. In someembodiments the system is configured for precisely tracking one or morehuman limbs in relation to the piece of equipment.

In some embodiments the system is configured for actuating theindustrial equipment to perform an action based on and in cooperationwith the recognized movement the one or more limbs. In some embodimentsthe system is configured to detect a pending collision between the limband piece of equipment, and in response to cause the industrialequipment to halt or to move out of the way of the collision. In someembodiments the system is configured for interpreting the movement ofthe human body part as a performable action. In some embodiments thesystem is configured to predict movement of the human limb. In someembodiments the system is configured for enabling setup or modificationsof robotic lines to eliminate interference and optimize movement pathsof robots operating in an industrial environment. In some embodimentsthe system is configured for automatic switching between modes ofcontrol for the piece of equipment based on the determined location ofthe piece of equipment. In some embodiments the system is configured forprecise assembly or setup within tolerances of large scale machinerythat has multiple subcomponents.

Still other aspects, embodiments, and advantages of these exemplaryaspects and embodiments are discussed in detail below. Embodimentsdisclosed herein may be combined with other embodiments in any mannerconsistent with at least one of the principles disclosed herein, andreferences to “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “an alternateembodiment,” “various embodiments,” “one embodiment” or the like are notnecessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described may beincluded in at least on embodiment. The appearances of such terms hereinare not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of at least one embodiment are discussed below withreference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to bedrawn to scale. The figures are included to provide illustration and afurther understanding of the various aspects and embodiments, and areincorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are notintended as a definition of the limits of the invention. In the figures,each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated invarious figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes ofclarity, not every component may be labeled in every figure.

In the Figures:

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision based on a bi-static ranging system configuration formeasuring a direct time-of-flight (TOF);

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision based on frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) TOFsignals;

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision based on direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) TOFsignals;

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision based on wide-band, ultra-wide-band pulsed signals, orany pulse compressed waveform;

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision based on DSSS or frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS)FMCW ranging techniques;

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision with TOF signals having multiple transmitters, multipletransceivers, or a hybrid combination of transmitter and transceivers;

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision with TOF signals having multiple receivers, multipletransponders, or a hybrid combination of receivers and transponders;

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring distancewith precision with TOF signals having multiple transmitters, multipletransceivers, or a hybrid combination of transmitter and transceiversand well as multiple receivers, multiple transponders, or a hybridcombination of receivers and transponders;

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a system for measuring locationwith precision with modulated TOF signals;

FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of a system for measuringlocation with precision with modulated TOF signals;

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an interrogator for linear FMCWtwo-way TOF ranging;

FIG. 12 illustrates another embodiment of a block diagram of aninterrogator for linear FMCW two-way TOF ranging; FIG. 13 illustratesone embodiment of a system for measuring distance with precision withTOF signals for detecting movement of a user and/or industrialequipment; and

FIG. 14 illustrates another embodiment of a system for measuringdistance with precision with TOF signals for detecting movement of auser and/or industrial equipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is to be appreciated that embodiments of the methods and apparatusesdiscussed herein are not limited in application to the details ofconstruction and the arrangement of components set forth in thefollowing description or illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Themethods and apparatuses are capable of implementation in otherembodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in variousways. Examples of specific implementations are provided herein forillustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. Also,the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use herein of“including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” andvariations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter andequivalents thereof as well as additional items. References to “or” maybe construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” mayindicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms.Any references to front and back, left and right, top and bottom, upperand lower, and vertical and horizontal are intended for convenience ofdescription, not to limit the present systems and methods or theircomponents to any one positional or spatial orientation.

Definitions

A transceiver is a device comprising both a transmitter (an electronicdevice that, with the an antenna, produces electromagnetic signals) anda receiver (an electronic device that, with the aid of an antenna,receives electromagnetic signals and converts the information carried bythem to a usable form) that share common circuitry.A transmitter-receiver is a device comprising both a transmitter and areceiver that are combined but do not share common circuitry.A transmitter is a transmit-only device, but may refer to transmitcomponents of a transmitter-receiver, a transceiver, or a transponder.A receiver is a receive-only device, but may refer to receive componentsof a transmitter-receiver, a transceiver, or a transponder.A transponder is a device that emits a signal in response to receivingan interrogating signal identifying the transponder and received from atransmitter.Radar (for Radio Detection and Ranging) is an object-detection systemthat uses electromagnetic signals to determine the range, altitude,direction, or speed of objects. For purposes of this disclosure, “radar”refers to primary or “classical” radar, where a transmitter emitsradiofrequency signals in a predetermined direction or directions, and areceiver listens for signals, or echoes, that are reflected back from anobject.Radio frequency signal or “RF signal” refers to electromagnetic signalsin the RF signal spectrum that can be CW or pulsed or any form.Pulse Compression or pulse compressed signal refers to any coded,arbitrary, or otherwise time-varying waveform to be used forTime-of-Flight (TOF) measurements, including but not limited to FMCW,Linear FM, pulsed CW, Impulse, Barker codes, and any other codedwaveform.Wired refers to a network of transmitters, transceivers, receivers,transponders, or any combination thereof, that are connected by aphysical waveguide such as a cable to a central processor.Wireless refers to a network of transmitters, transceivers, receivers,transponders, or any combination thereof that are connected only byelectromagnetic signals transmitted and received wirelessly, not byphysical waveguide.Calibrating the network refers to measuring distances between atransmitters, transceivers, receivers, transponders, or any combinationthereof.High precision ranging refers to the use electromagnetic signals tomeasure distances with millimeter or sub-millimeter precision.One-way travel time or TOF refers to the time it takes anelectromagnetic signal to travel from a transmitter or transceiver to areceiver or transponder.Two-way travel time or TOF refers to the time it takes anelectromagnetic signal to travel from a transmitter or transceiver to atransponder plus the time it takes for the signal, or response, toreturn to the transceiver or a receiver.

Referring to FIG. 1, aspects and embodiments of one embodiment of asystem for measuring distance with precision of the present inventionare based on a bi-static ranging system configuration, which measures adirect time of flight (TOF) of a transmitted signal between at least onetransmitter 10 and at least one receiver 12. This embodiment of aranging system of the invention can be characterized as an apparatus formeasuring TOF of an electromagnetic signal 14. This embodiment of anapparatus is comprised of at least one transmitter 10, which transmitsan electromagnetic signal 14 to at least one receiver 12, which receivesthe transmitted signal 14 and determines a time of flight of thereceived signal. A time of flight of the electromagnetic signal 14between the transmission time of the signal 14 transmitted from thetransmitter 10 to the time the signal is received by the receiver 12 ismeasured to determine the TOF of the signal 14 between the transmitterand the receiver. A signal processor within one of the transmitter 10and the receiver 12 analyzes the received and sampled signal todetermine the TOF. The TOF of the signal 14 is indicative of thedistance between the transmitter 10 and the receiver 12, and can be usedfor many purposes, some examples of which are described herein.

A preferred embodiment of the ranging system of the present invention isillustrated and described with reference to FIG. 2. In particular, oneembodiment of a ranging system according to the present inventionincludes a transmitter 10 which can, for example, be mounted on anobject for which a position and/or range is to be sensed. Thetransmitter 10 transmits a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW)signal 14′. At least one receiver 12 is coupled to the transmitter 10 bya cable 16. The cable 16 returns the received transmitted signalreceived by the at least one receiver back to the transmitter 10. In thetransmitter 10, the transmitted signal 14′ is split by a splitter 17prior to being fed to and transmitted by an antenna 18. A portion of thetransmitted signal 14′ that has been split by the splitter 16 is fed toa first port of a mixer 20 and is used as local oscillator (LO) signalinput signal for the mixer. The transmitted signal 14′ is received by anantenna 22 at the receiver 12 and is output by the at least one receiver12 to a combiner 24, which combines the received signals from the atleast one receiver 12 and forwards the combined received signals withthe cable 16 to a second port of the mixer 20. An output signal 21 fromthe mixer has a beat frequency that corresponds to a time differencebetween the transmitted signal from the transmitter 10 to the receivedsignal by the receiver 12. Thus, the beat frequency of the output signal21 of the mixer is representative of the distance between thetransmitter and the receiver. The output signal 21 of the mixer 20 issupplied to an input of an Analog to Digital converter 26 to provide asampled output signal 29. The sampled signal 29 can be provided to aprocessor 28 configured to determine the beat frequency to indicate aTOF, which is indicative of the distance between the transmitter andreceiver.

This embodiment of the ranging system is based on the transmission andreception of an FMCW transmitted signal and determining a beat frequencydifference between the transmitted and received signals. The beatfrequency signal is proportional to the TOF distance between thetransmitter and the receiver. By way of example, the sampled signal fromthe A/D converter 26 is fed to the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) device30 to transform the sampled time signal into the frequency domainx(t)⇒X(k). It will be understood that other transforms or algorithms maybe used, such as multiple signal classifiers (MUSIC), estimation ofsignal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT),discrete Fourier transforms (DFT), and inverse Fourier transforms (IFT),for example. From the FFT, the TOF of the signal 14′ can be determined.In particular, the data output from the A/D converter 26 is a filteredset of amplitudes, with some low frequency noise. According to aspectsof this embodiment a minimum amplitude threshold for object detection tooccur can be set so that detection is triggered by an amplitude abovethe minimum threshold. If an amplitude of the sampled signal at a givenfrequency does not reach the threshold, it may be ignored.

In the system illustrated in FIG. 2, any number of additional receivers12 can be included in the system. The output signals from the additionalreceivers 12 are selected by a switch 24 and fed back to the transmitter10 by the cable 16 to provide selected received signals at theadditional receivers for additional time of flight measured signals atadditional receivers 12. In an alternate embodiment, the mixer 20 andthe A/D converter 26 can be included in each receiver to output adigital signal from each receiver. In this embodiment, the digitalsignal can be selected and fed back to the transmitter for furtherprocessing. It is appreciated that for this embodiment, the FFTprocessing can be done either in each receiver or at the transmitter.The TOF measured signals resulting from the additional receivers 12 canbe processed to indicate the position of the object to which thetransmitter 10 is mounted with a number of degrees of freedom and withexcellent resolution according to the present invention. Also as isillustrated with reference to FIG. 8, according to aspects andembodiments of this disclosure, it is appreciated that multipletransmitters can be coupled to multiple receivers to produce asophisticated position-detecting system.

In the ranging system of FIG. 2, at least one transmitter 10 can bemounted on an object to be tracked in distance and position. Thereceivers each generate a signal for determining a TOF measurement forthe signal 14′ transmitted by the transmitter. The receivers 12 arecoupled to the processor 28 to produce data indicating the TOF from thetransmitter to each of the three receivers, which can be used forprecise position detection of the transmitter 10 coupled to the object.It is appreciated that various arrangements of transmitters andreceivers may be used to triangulate the position of the object to whichthe transmitter is attached, providing information such as x, y, zposition as well as translation and 3 axes of rotation of thetransmitter 10.

It is appreciated that for any of the embodiments and aspects disclosedherein, there can be coordinated timing between the transmitter andreceivers to achieve the precise distance measurements. It is alsoappreciated that the disclosed embodiments of the system are capable ofmeasuring distance by TOF on the order of about a millimeter orsub-millimeter scale in precision, at 1 Hz or less in frequency over atotal range of hundreds of meters. It is anticipated that embodiments ofthe system can be implemented with very low-cost components for less$100.

Modulation Ranging Systems

Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustrated another embodiment of aranging system 300 implemented according to the present invention. It isappreciated that various form of modulation such as harmonic modulation,Doppler modulation, amplitude modulation, phase modulation, frequencymodulation, signal encoding, and combinations thereof can be used toprovide precision navigation and localization. One such example isillustrated in FIG. 3, which illustrates a use of pulsed direct sequencespread spectrum (DSSS) signals 32 to determine range or distance. Indirect sequence spread spectrum ranging systems, code modulation of thetransmitted signal 32 and demodulation of a received and re-transmittedsignal 36 can be done by phase shift modulating a carrier signal. Atransmitter portion of a transceiver 38 transmits via an antenna 40 apseudo-noise code-modulated signal 32 having a frequency F1. It is to beappreciated that in a duplex ranging system, the transceiver 38 and atransponder 42 can operate simultaneously.

As shown in FIG. 3, the transponder 42 receives the transmitted signal32 having frequency F1, which is fed to and translated by a translator34 to a different frequency F2, which can be for example 2×F1 and isretransmitted by the transponder 42 as code-modulated signal 36 havingfrequency F2. A receiver subsystem of the transceiver 38, which isco-located with the transmitter portion of the transceiver 38 receivesthe retransmitted signal 36 and synchronizes to the return signal. Inparticular, by measuring the time delay between the transmitted signal32 being transmitted and received signal 36, the system can determinethe range from itself to the transponder. In this embodiment, the timedelay corresponds to the two-way propagation delay of the transmitted 32and retransmitted signals 36.

According to aspects of this embodiment, the system can include twoseparate PN code generators 44, 46 for the transmitter and receiversubsystems of the transceiver 38, so that the code at the receiverportion of the transceiver can be out of phase with the transmitted codeor so that the codes can be different.

The transmitter portion of the transceiver 38 for measuring TOF distanceof an electromagnetic signal comprises a 1st pseudo noise generator 44for generating a first phase shift signal, a first mixer 48 whichreceives a carrier signal 50, which modulates the carrier signal with afirst phase shift signal 52 to provide a pseudo-noise code-modulatedsignal 32 having a center frequency F1 that is transmitted by thetransceiver 38. The transponder apparatus 42 comprises the translator 34which receives the pseudo-noise code-modulated signal 32 having centerfrequency F1 and translates the pseudo-noise code-modulated signal offrequency F1 to provide a translated pseudo-noise code-modulated signalhaving a center frequency F2 or that provides a different coded signalcentered at the center frequency F1, and that is transmitted by thetransponder back to the transceiver 38. The transceiver apparatus 38further comprises a second pseudo noise generator 46 for generating asecond phase shift signal 56, and a second mixer 54 which receives thesecond phase shift signal 56 from the pseudo-noise generator 46, whichreceives the translated pseudo-noise code-modulated signal 36 atfrequency F2 and modulates the pseudo-correlated code-modulated signal36 having center frequency F2 with the second phase shift signal 56 toprovide a return signal 60. The apparatus further comprises a detector62 which detects the return signal 60, and a ranging device/counter 64that measures the time delay between the transmitted signal 32 and thereceived signal 36 to determine the round trip range from thetransceiver 38 to the transponder 42 and back to the transceiver 38 soas to determine the two-way propagation delay. According to aspects ofsome embodiments, the first PN generator 44 and the second PN generator46 can be two separate PN code generators.

It is appreciated that the preciseness of this embodiment of the systemdepends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal, the bandwidth,and the sampling rate of the sampled signals. It is also appreciatedthat this embodiment of the system can use any pulse compressed signal.

FIG. 9 illustrates another embodiment of a modulation ranging system301. This embodiment can be used to provide a transmitted signal atfrequency F1 from interrogator 380, which is received and harmonicallymodulated by transponder 420 to provide a harmonic return signal 360 atF2, which can be for example 2×F1, that is transmitted by thetransponder 420 back to the interrogator 380 to determine preciselocation of the transponder. With the harmonic ranging system, thedoubling of the transmitted signal 320 by the transponder can be used todifferentiate the retransmitted transponder signal from a signalreflected for example by scene clutter.

As illustrated by FIGS. 3 and 9-10 along with the discussion above, atransponder 42, 420, 421, 423 may translate a received frequency F1 to aresponse frequency F2 and the response frequency F2 may be harmonicallyrelated to F1. A simple harmonic transponder device capable of doing somay include a single diode used as a frequency doubler, or multiplier,coupled to one or more antennas. FIG. 9 illustrates a simple harmonictransponder 423 that includes a receive antenna RX, a multiplier 422that can simply be a diode, an optional battery 425, and an optionalauxiliary receiver 427. FIG. 3 shows a transponder 42 having a singleantenna for both receiving and transmitting signals to and from thetransponder 42, while FIG. 9 shows separate antennas (labelled RX,TX)for both receiving and transmitting signals to and from the transponders420, 423. It is appreciated that embodiments of any transponder 42, 420,421, and 423 as disclosed herein, may have may have one shared antenna,may have multiple antennas such as a TX and an RX antenna, and mayinclude different antenna arrangements.

An embodiment of transponder 42, 420, 421, 423 can include a frequencymultiplying element 422, such as but not limited to a diode, integratedinto an antenna structure. For example, a diode may be placed upon andcoupled to a conducting structure, such as a patch antenna or microstripantenna structure, and placed in a configuration so as to matchimpedance of a received and/or transmitted signal so as to be capable ofexciting antenna modes at each of the receive and response frequencies.

An embodiment of a passive harmonic transponder 423 includes a low powersource such as a battery 425 (for example a watch battery), which can beused to reverse bias the diode multiplier 422 to normally be off, andthe low power source can be turned off to turn the harmonic transponderto an on state (a wake up state)to multiply or otherwise harmonicallyshift a frequency of a received signal. The low power source can be usedto reverse bias the multiplier 422 to turn on and off the transponder,for example in applications like those discussed herein. According to anembodiment of the transponder, the power source 425 can also beconfigured to forward bias the multiplexer (diode) 422 to increase thesensitivity and increase the range of the transponder to kilometer rangeup from for example, a 10-100 meter range. In still another embodiment,amplification (LNA, LNA2, LNA3, LNA4) either solely or in combinationwith forward biasing of the multiplier diode 422, may also oralternatively be used to increase sensitivity of the transponder. It isappreciated that in general, amplification may be employed with anytransponder to increase the sensitivity of any of the embodiments of atransponder of any of the ranging systems as disclosed herein.

According to aspects and embodiments, the diode-based transponder 423can be a passive transponder that is configured to use very little powerand may be powered via button-type or watch battery, and/or may bepowered by energy harvesting techniques. This embodiment of thetransponder is configured to consume low amounts of energy with thetransponder in the powered off mode most of the time, and occasionallybeing switched to a wake up state. It is appreciated that the reversebiasing of the diode and the switching on and off of the diode biastakes little power. This would allow passive embodiments of thetransponder 423 to run off of watch batteries or other low powersources, or to even be battery-less by using power harvestingtechniques, for example from the TOF electromagnetic signals, or frommotion, such as a piezoelectric source, a solenoid, or an inertialgenerator, or from a light source, e.g., solar. With such anarrangement, the interrogator 38, 380, 381 can include an auxiliarywireless transmitter 429 and the transponder 42, 420, 421, and 423 caninclude an auxiliary wireless receiver 427 as discussed herein,particularly with respect to FIGS. 3, 9-10, that is used to address eachtransponder to tell each transponder when to wake up. The auxiliarysignal transmitted by auxiliary wireless transmitter 429 and received byauxiliary wireless receiver 427 is used to address each transponder totell each transponder when to turn on and turn off. One advantage ofproviding the interrogator with the auxiliary wireless transmitter 429and each transponder with an auxiliary wireless signal receiver 427 isthat it provides for the TOF signal channel to be unburdened by unwantedsignal noise such as, for example, communication signals fromtransponders that are not being used. With that said, it is alsoappreciated that another embodiment of the TOF system could in fact usethe TOF signal channel to send and receive radio/control messages to andfrom the transponders to tell transponders to turn on and off, etc. Withsuch an arrangement, the auxiliary wireless receiver 427 is optional.

It is appreciated that embodiments of the passive harmonic transponder423 do not require a battery source that needs to be changed everyday/few days. The passive harmonic transponder 423 can either have along-life battery or for shorter range applications may be wirelesslypowered by the main channel signal or by an auxiliary channel signal forlonger range (e.g. the interrogator and transponder can operate over the3-10 GHz range, while power harvesting can occur using either or both ofthe main signal range and a lower frequency range such as, for example,900 MHz or 13 MHz. In contrast, classic harmonic radar tags simplyrespond as a chopper to an incoming signal, such that useful tag outputpower levels require very strong incoming signals such as >−30 dBm atthe tag from a transmitter. It is appreciated that the passive harmonictransponder 423 provides a compact, long/unlimited lifetime long-rangetransponder by storing energy to bias the diode, drastically increasingthe diode sensitivity and range of the transponder to, for example, 1 kmscales.

One aspect of the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 of a modulation rangingsystem, or any of the embodiments of a ranging system as disclosedherein, is that each transponder 420 can be configured with an auxiliarywireless receiver 427 to be uniquely addressable by an auxiliarywireless signal 401 from the auxiliary wireless transmitter 429, such asfor example a blue tooth signal, a Wi-Fi signal, a cellular signal, aZigbee signal and the like, which can be transmitted by the interrogator380. Thus, the interrogator 380 can be configured with an auxiliarywireless transmitter 429 to transmit an auxiliary wireless signal 401 toidentify and turn on a particular transponder 420. For example, theauxiliary wireless signal 401 could be configured to turn on eachtransponder based on each transponder's serial number. With thisarrangement, each transponder could be uniquely addressed by anauxiliary wireless signal provided by the interrogator. Alternately, anauxiliary signal to address and enable individual or groups oftransponders may be an embedded control message in the transmittedinterrogation signal, which may take the form of command protocols orunique codes. In other embodiments the auxiliary signal to enable atransponder may take various other forms.

As shown in FIG. 9, a transmitter portion of an interrogator 380transmits via an antenna 400 a signal 320 having a frequency F1. Thetransponder can be prompted to wake up by auxiliary wireless transmitter429 transmitting an auxiliary wireless signal and the transponderreceiving with an auxiliary wireless receiver 427 the auxiliary wirelesssignal 401, such that the transponder 420 receives the transmittedsignal 320 having frequency F1, which is doubled in frequency by thetransponder to frequency F2 (=2×F1) and is retransmitted by thetransponder 420 as signal 360 having frequency F2. A receiver subsystemof the interrogator 380, which is co-located with the transmitterportion of the interrogator 380 receives the retransmitted signal 360and synchronizes the return signal to measure the precise distance andlocation between the interrogator 380 and the transponder 420. Inparticular, by measuring the time delay between the transmitted signal320 being transmitted and the received signal 360, the system candetermine the range from the interrogator to the transponder. In thisembodiment, the time delay corresponds to the two-way propagation delayof the transmitted 320 and retransmitted signals 360.

For example, the transmitter portion of the interrogator 380 formeasuring precise location of a transponder 420 comprises an oscillator382 that provides a first signal 320 having a center frequency F1 thatis transmitted by the interrogator 380. The transponder apparatus 420comprises a frequency harmonic translator 422 which receives the firstsignal 320 having center frequency F1 and translates the signal offrequency F1 to provide a harmonic of the signal F1 having a centerfrequency F2, for example 2×F1 that is transmitted by the transponder420 back to the interrogator 380. The interrogator 380 as shown furthercomprises four receive channels 390, 392, 394, 396 for receiving thesignal F2. Each receive channel comprises a mixer 391, 393, 395, 397which receives the second signal 360 at frequency F2 and down convertsthe return signal 360. The interrogator apparatus further comprises adetector which detects the return signal, an analog-to-digital converterand a processor to determine a precise measurement of the time delaybetween the transmitted signal 320 and the received signal 360 todetermine the round trip range from the interrogator 380 to thetransponder 420 and back to the interrogator 380 so as to determine thetwo-way propagation delay.

According to aspects of this embodiment, the interrogator can includefour separate receive channels 390, 392, 394, 396 to receive theharmonic return frequencies of the retransmitted signal 401 in aspatially diverse array for the purpose of navigation. It is appreciatedthat the first signal 320 having a center frequency F1 can be varied infrequency according to any of the modulation schemes that have beendiscussed herein, such as, for example FMCW, and that the modulationcould also be any of CW pulsed, pulsed, impulse, or any other waveform.It is to be appreciated that any number of channels can be used. It isalso to be appreciated that in the four receive channels of theinterrogator can either be multiplexed to receive the signal 360 atdifferent times or can be configured to operate simultaneously. It isfurther appreciated that, at least in part because modulation is beingused, the interrogator 380 and the transponder 420 can be configured tooperate simultaneously.

It is to be appreciated that according to aspects and embodimentsdisclosed herein, the modulator can use different forms of modulation.For example, as noted above direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)modulation can be used. In addition, other forms of modulation such asDoppler modulation, amplitude modulation, phase modulation, codedmodulation such as CDMA, or other known forms of modulation can be usedeither in combination with a frequency or harmonic translation orinstead of a harmonic or frequency translation. In particular, theinterrogator signal 320 and the transponder signal 360 can either be atthe same frequency, i.e. F1, and a modulation of the interrogator signalby the transponder 420 can be done to provide the signal 360 at the samefrequency F1, or the interrogator can also frequency translate thesignal 320 to provide the signal 360 at a second frequency F2, which maybe at a harmonic of F1, in addition to modulate the signal F1, or theinterrogator can only frequency translate the signal 320 to provide thesignal 360. As noted above, any of the noted modulation techniquesprovide the advantage of distinguishing the transponder signal 360 frombackground clutter reflected signal 320. It is to be appreciated thatwith some forms of modulation, the transponders can be uniquelyidentified by the modulation, such as coded modulation, to respond tothe interrogation signal so that multiple transponders 420 can beoperated simultaneously. In addition, as been noted herein, by using acoded waveform, there need not be a translation of frequency of theretransmitted signal 360, which has the advantage of providing a lessexpensive solution since no frequency translation is necessary.

It is to be appreciated that according to aspects and embodiments of anyof the ranging system as disclosed herein, multiple channels may be usedby various of the interrogator and transponder devices, for example,multiple frequency channels, quadrature phase channels, or code channelsmay be incorporated in either or both of interrogation or responsesignals. In other embodiments, additional channel schemes may be used.For example, one embodiment of a transponder 42, 420, 421, 423 can haveboth in phase and 90° out of phase (quadrature) channels with twodifferent diodes where the diodes are modulated in quadrature by reversebiasing of the diodes. With such an arrangement, the interrogator couldbe configured to send coded waveform signals to different transponderssimultaneously. In addition, other methods as discussed herein, such aspolarization diversity, time sharing, a code-multiplexed scheme whereeach transponder has a unique pseudo-random code to make eachtransponder uniquely addressable, and the like provide for allowincreased numbers of transponders to be continuously monitored at fullenergy sensitivity.

FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of a modulation ranging system310. This embodiment can be used to provide a transmitted signal atfrequency F1 from interrogator 381, which is received by transponder 421and frequency translated by transponder 421 to provide a frequencyshifted return signal 361 at F2, which can be arbitrarily related infrequency to F1 of the interrogator signal (it doesn't have to be aharmonic signal), that is transmitted by the transponder 421 back to theinterrogator 381 to determine precise location of the transponder 421.With this arrangement illustrated in FIG. 10, for example the signal 321at F1 can be at the 5.8 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical band, andthe return signal 361 at F2 can be in the 24 GHz ISM band. It is to beappreciated also that with this arrangement of a modulation system, thefrequency shifting of the transmitted signal 321 by the transponder 421can be used to differentiate the retransmitted transponder signal 361from a signal reflected for example by background clutter.

One aspect of this embodiment 310 of a modulation ranging system or anyof the embodiments of a ranging system as disclosed herein is that eachtransponder 42, 420, 421, 423 can be configured to be uniquelyaddressable to wake up each transponder by receiving with an auxiliarywireless receiver 427 an auxiliary wireless signal 401 from an auxiliarywireless transmitter 429, such as for example a blue tooth signal, aWi-Fi signal, a cellular signal, a Zigbee signal, and the like, whichauxiliary wireless signal can be transmitted by the interrogator 381.Thus, the interrogator 381 can be configured with an auxiliary signaltransmitter 429 to transmit an auxiliary wireless signal 401 to identifyand turn on a particular transponder 42, 420, 421, 423. For example, theauxiliary wireless signal could be configured to turn on eachtransponder based on each transponder's serial number. With thisarrangement, each transponder could be uniquely addressed by anauxiliary wireless signal provided by the interrogator or anothersource.

With respect to FIG. 10, it is appreciated that an oscillator such asOSC3 will have finite frequency error that manifests itself as finiteestimated position error. One possible mitigation with a low cost TCXO(temperature controlled crystal oscillator) used for OSC3 is to have auser periodically touch their transponder to a calibration target. Thiscalibration target is equipped with magnetic, optical, radar, or othersuitable close range high precision sensors to effectively null out theposition error caused by any long-term or short-term drift of the TCXOor other suitable low cost high stability oscillator. The nulling out isretained in the radar and/or transponder as a set of calibrationconstants that may persist for minutes, hours, or days depending on theusers position accuracy needs.

According to aspects and embodiments the interrogator and eachtransponder of the system can be configured to use a single antenna(same antenna) to both transmit and receive a signal. For example, theinterrogator 38, 380, 381 can be configured with one antenna 40, 400, totransmit the interrogator signal 32, 320, 321 and receive the responsesignal 36, 360, 361. Similarly, the transponder can be configured withone antenna to receive the interrogator signal 32, 320, 321 and transmitthe response signal 36, 360, 361. This can be accomplished, for example,if coded waveforms are used for the signals. Alternatively, where thesignals are frequency translated but are close in frequency, such as forexample 4.9 GHz and 5.8 GHz, the same antenna can be used. Alternativelyor in addition, it may be possible to provide the interrogator signal32, 320, 321 at a first polarization, such as Left Hand CircularPolarization (LHCP), Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP), verticalpolarization, horizontal polarization, and to provide the interrogatorsignal 36, 360, 361 at a second polarization. It is appreciated thatproviding the signals with different polarizations can also enable asystem with the interrogator and the transponder each using a singleantenna, thereby reducing costs. It is further appreciated that usingcircular polarization techniques mitigates the reflections frombackground clutter thereby reducing the effects of multi-path returnsignals, because when using circular polarization, the reflected signalis flipped in polarization, and so the multipath return signals could beattenuated by using linear polarizations and/or polarization filters.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the systems disclosedherein, it is further appreciated that there can be selective pinging ofeach transponder 42, 420, 421, 423 to wake up each transponder byreceiving with an auxiliary wireless receiver 427 an auxiliary wirelesssignal 401, such as for example a blue tooth signal, a Wi-Fi signal, acellular signal, a Zigbee signal and the like, which can be transmittedby the interrogator 380 to provide for scene data compression. Inparticular, there can be some latency when using an auxiliary wirelesssignal to identify and interrogate each transponder 42, 420, 421, 423.As the number of transponders increases, this can result in slowing downof interrogation of all the transponders. However, some transponders maynot need to be interrogated as often as other transponders. For example,in an environment where some transponders may be moving and others maybe stationary, the stationary transponders need not be interrogated asoften as the transponders that are actively moving. Still others may notbe moving as fast as other transponders. Thus, by dynamically assessingand pinging more frequently the transponders that are moving or that aremoving faster than other transponders, there can be a compression of thetransponder signals, which can be analogized for example to MPEG4compression where only pixels that are changing are sampled.

According to aspects and embodiments disclosed herein, the interrogatorsand transponders can be configured with their own proprietarymicro-location frequency allocation protocol so that the transpondersand interrogators can operate at unused frequency bands that existamongst existing allocated frequency bands. In addition, theinterrogators and transponders can be configured so as to inform usersof legacy systems at other frequencies for situational awareness, e.g.to use existing frequency allocations in situations that warrant usingexisting frequency band allocations. Some advantages of these aspectsand embodiments are that it enables a control for all modes of travel(foot, car, aerial, boat, etc.) over existing wired and wirelessbackhaul networks, with the interrogators and the transpondersinter-operating with existing smart vehicle and smart phone technologiessuch as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and Bluetooth LowEnergy (BLE) radio.

In particular, aspects and embodiments are directed to high powerinterrogators in license-free bands e.g. 5.8 GHz under U-NII andfrequency sharing schemes via dynamic frequency selection andintra-pulse sharing wherein the system detects other loading issues suchas system timing and load factor, and the system allocates pulses inbetween shared system usage. One example of such an arrangement isdynamic intra pulse spectrum notching on the fly. Another aspect ofembodiments disclosed herein is dynamic allocation of responsefrequencies by a lower power transponder at license-free frequency bands(lower power enables wider selection of transponder responsefrequencies).

Another aspect of embodiments of interrogators and transpondersdisclosed herein is an area that has been configured with a plurality ofinterrogators (a localization enabled area) can have each of thetransponders enabled with BLE signal emitting beacons (no connectionneeded), as has been noted herein. With this arrangement, when a userhaving a transponder, such as a wearable transponder , enters into thelocalization area, the transponder “wakes up” to listen for the BLEinterrogation signal and replies as needed. It is also appreciated thatthe transponder can be configured to request an update on what's goingon, either over the BLE channel or another frequency channel, such as adynamically allocated channel.

Some examples of applications where this system arrangement can be usedare for example as a human or robot walks, drives, or pilots a vehicleor unmanned vehicle through any of for example a dense urban area, awooded area, or a deep valley area where direct line of sight isproblematic and multipath reflections cause GNSS navigation solutions tobe highly inaccurate or fail to converge altogether. The human or robotor vehicle or unmanned vehicle can be equipped with such configured withtransponders and interrogators can be configured to update thetransponders with their current state vector as well as broadcastawareness of their state vector over preselected or dynamically selectedfrequency using wireless protocols, Bluetooth Low Energy, DSRC, andother appropriate mechanisms for legal traceability (accident insuranceclaims, legal compliance).

One implementation can be for example with UDP multicasting, wherein thetransponders are configured to communicate all known state vectors oftarget transponders with UDP multicast signals. The UDP multicastencrypted signals can be also be configured to be cybersecurityprotected against spoofing, denial of service and the like. Onepractical realization of the network infrastructure may include: AmazonAWS IoT service, 512 byte packet increments, TCP Port 443, MQTTprotocol, designed to be tolerant of intermittent links, late to arriveunits, and brokers and logs data for traceability, and machine learning.

Wide-Band or Ultra-Wide-Band Ranging Systems

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a wide-band or ultra-wide-bandimpulse ranging system 800. The system includes an impulse radiotransmitter 900. The transmitter 900 comprises a time base 904 thatgenerates a periodic timing signal 908. The time base 904 comprises avoltage controlled oscillator, or the like, which is typically locked toa crystal reference, having a high timing accuracy. The periodic timingsignal 908 is supplied to a code source 912 and a code time modulator916.

The code source 912 comprises a storage device such as a random accessmemory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), or the like, for storing codes andoutputting the codes as code signal 920. For example, orthogonal PNcodes are stored in the code source 912. The code source 912 monitorsthe periodic timing signal 908 to permit the code signal to besynchronized to the code time modulator 916. The code time modulator 916uses the code signal 920 to modulate the periodic timing signal 908 forchannelization and smoothing of the final emitted signal. The output ofthe code time modulator 916 is a coded timing signal 924.

The coded timing signal 924 is provided to an output stage 928 that usesthe coded timing signal as a trigger to generate electromagnetic pulses.The electromagnetic pulses are sent to a transmit antenna 932 via atransmission line 936. The electromagnetic pulses are converted intopropagating electromagnetic waves 940 by the transmit antenna 932. Theelectromagnetic waves propagate to an impulse radio receiver through apropagation medium, such as air.

FIG. 4 further illustrates an impulse radio receiver 1000. The impulseradio receiver 1000 comprises a receive antenna 1004 for receiving apropagating electromagnetic wave 940 and converting it to an electricalreceived signal 1008. The received signal is provided to a correlator1016 via a transmission line coupled to the receive antenna 1004.

The receiver 1000 comprises a decode source 1020 and an adjustable timebase 1024. The decode source 1020 generates a decode signal 1028corresponding to the code used by the associated transmitter 900 thattransmitted the signal 940. The adjustable time base 1024 generates aperiodic timing signal 1032 that comprises a train of template signalpulses having waveforms substantially equivalent to each pulse of thereceived signal 1008.

The decode signal 1028 and the periodic timing signal 1032 are receivedby the decode timing modulator 1036. The decode timing modulator 1036uses the decode signal 1028 to position in time the periodic timingsignal 1032 to generate a decode control signal 1040. The decode controlsignal 1040 is thus matched in time to the known code of the transmitter900 so that the received signal 1008 can be detected in the correlator1016.

An output 1044 of the correlator 1016 results from the multiplication ofthe input pulse 1008 and the signal 1040 and integration of theresulting signal. This is the correlation process. The signal 1044 isfiltered by a low pass filter 1048 and a signal 1052 is generated at theoutput of the low pass filter 1048. The signal 1052 is used to controlthe adjustable time base 1024 to lock onto the received signal. Thesignal 1052 corresponds to the average value of the correlator output,and is the lock loop error signal that is used to control the adjustabletime base 1024 to maintain a stable lock on the signal. If the receivedpulse train is slightly early, the output of the low pass filter 1048will be slightly high and generate a time base correction to shift theadjustable time base slightly earlier to match the incoming pulse train.In this way, the receiver is held in stable relationship with theincoming pulse train.

It is appreciated that this embodiment of the system can use any pulsecompressed signal. It is also appreciated that the transmitter 900 andthe receiver 1000 can be incorporated into a single transceiver device.First and second transceiver devices according to this embodiment can beused to determine the distance d to and the position of an object.Further reference to functionalities of both a transmitter and areceiver are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,297,773 System and Method forPosition Determination by Impulse Radio, which is herein incorporated byreference.

Linear FM and FHSS FMCW Ranging Systems

Referring to FIG. 5, there is illustrated another embodiment of aranging system 400 implemented according to the present invention thatcan use either linear FMCW ranging or frequency hopping spread spectrum(FHSS) FMCW ranging signals and techniques.

According to one embodiment implementing linear FMCW ranging, atransmitted signal 74 is swept through a linear range of frequencies andtransmitted as transmitted signal 74. For one way linear TOF FMCWranging, at a separate receiver 80, a linear decoding of the receivedsignal 74 and a split version of the linear swept transmitted signal aremixed together at a mixer 82 to provide a coherent received signalcorresponding to the TOF of the transmitted signal. Because this is doneat a separate receiver 80, it yields a one-way TOF ranging.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of an interrogatorfor linear FMCW two-way TOF ranging. In the Embodiment of FIG. 11, aninterrogator transmits via antenna 1 (ANT 1) a linear FM modulated chirpsignal 74 (or FMCW) towards a transponder (not illustrated) as shown forexample in FIG. 5. The transponder can for example frequency shift thelinear FM modulated chirp signal 74 and re-transmit a frequency shiftedsignal 75 at different frequency as discussed herein for aspects ofvarious embodiments of a transponder. For example, as discussed herein,a transponder tag is tracked by receiving, amplifying, then frequencymixing the linear FM modulated interrogation signal and re-transmittingit out at a different frequency. This allows the tag to be easilydiscernable from clutter, or in other words, so it can be detected amongother radar reflecting surfaces. The frequency offset return signal 75and any scattered return signal 74 are collected by receiver antenna 2(ANT2), antenna 3 (ANT3) and antenna 4 (ANT4), amplified by a low noiseamplifier LNA1 and an Amplifier AMP1, and multiplied by the originalchirp signal supplied via the circulator CIRC2 in the mixer MXR1. In theillustrated embodiment the antennas are multiplexed by a single-polemulti-throw switch SW1. The product is amplified via a video amplifierfed out to a digitizer where ranging information can be computed. It isappreciated that although linear FM is discussed in this example anyarbitrary waveform can be used including but not limited to impulse,barker codes, or any pulse or phase coded waveforms of any kind. Theinterrogator and the transponder can work with any arbitrary waveformsincluding but not limited to linear FM (or FMCW), impulse, pulsed CW,barker codes, or any other modulation techniques that fits within thebandwidth of its signal chain.

FIG. 12 illustrates another embodiment of a block diagram of aninterrogator for linear FMCW two-way TOF ranging. This embodimentdiffers from the embodiment of FIG. 11, primarily in that theinterrogator has three transmit antennas to allow for three dimensionalranging of the interrogator and four receive channels for receiving there-transmitted signal. This embodiment was prototyped and tested. Thetransmitted signal was transmitted with a Linear FM modulation, 10 mSchirp over a 4 GHz bandwidth from 8.5 GHz to 12.5 GHz. The transmittedoutput power was +14 dBm. With this arrangement, precision localizationwas measured and achieved to an accuracy of 27 um in Channel 0, 45 um inChannel 1, 32 um in Channel 2 and 59 um in Channel 3.

With FHSS FMCW ranging, the transmitted signal is not linearly sweptthrough a linear range of frequencies as is done with linear FMCWranging, instead the transmitted signal is frequency modulated with aseries of individual frequencies that are varied and transmittedsequentially in some pseudo-random order according to a specific PNcode. It might also exclude particular frequency bands, for example, forpurposes of regulatory compliance. For FHSS FMCW ranging at a separatereceiver 80 for one way TOF ranging, a decoding of the received signal74 and a split version of the individual frequencies that are varied andtransmitted sequentially according to a specific PN code are mixedtogether at a mixer 82 to provide a coherent received signalcorresponding to the TOF of the transmitted signal. For FHSS FMCW, thisis done at a separate receiver 80 for one-way TOF ranging.

More specifically, this embodiment of an apparatus 400 for measuring TOFdistance via a linear FHSS FMCW electromagnetic signal comprises atransmitter 70 comprising a local oscillator 72 for generating a signal74 and a linear ramp generator 76 coupled to the local oscillator thatsweeps the local oscillator signal to provide a linear modulatedtransmitted signal 74 for linear modulation. According to the FHSS FMCWembodiment, instead of a linear ramp generator, the signal provided tomodulate the local oscillator signal is broken up into discretefrequency signals 78 that modulate the local oscillator signal toprovide a series of individual frequencies according to a specific PNcode for modulating the local oscillator signal. The modulatedtransmitted signal 74 modulated with the series of individualfrequencies are transmitted sequentially in some pseudo-random order,according to a specific PN code, as the transmitted signal. For one-wayTOF measurements, a split off version of the transmitted signal is alsofed via a cable 88 to a receiver 80. The receiver 80 receives thetransmitted signal at an antenna 90 and forwards the received signal toa first port 91 of the mixer. The mixer also receives the signal oncable 88 at a second port 92 and mixes the signal with the receivedsignal 74, to provide at an output 94 of the mixer a signalcorresponding to the time of flight distance between the transmitter 70and the receiver 80 of the transmitted signal 74 that is either linearmodulated (for linear FMCW) or modulated with the PN codes of individualfrequencies (for FHSS FMCW). The apparatus further comprises an analogto digital converter 84 coupled to an output 94 of the mixer 82 thatreceives that signal output from the mixer and provides a sampled outputsignal 85. The sampled output signal 85 is fed to a processor 86 thatperforms a FFT on the sampled signal. According to aspects of thisembodiment, the ranging apparatus further comprises a frequencygenerator configured to provide signals at a plurality of discretefrequencies and processor to provide a randomized sequence of theindividual frequency signals.

It is appreciated that this embodiment of the system can use any pulsecompressed signal.

It is desirable to make the interrogators and the transponders as havebeen discussed herein as small as possible and as cheap as possible, sothat the interrogators and transponders can be used anywhere and foranything. This it is desirable to implement as much of the interrogatorstructure and functionality and as much of the transponder structure andfunctionality as can be done on a chip. It is appreciated that one ofthe most inexpensive forms of manufacturing electronic devices is as aCMOS implementation. Accordingly, aspects and embodiments of theinterrogators and transponders as described herein are to be implementedas CMOS.

Multiple Transmitter and/or Transceivers

Referring to FIG. 6, it is to be appreciated that various embodiments ofa ranging system 500 according to the invention can comprise multipletransmitters 96, multiple transceivers 98, or a combination of bothtransmitter and transceivers that transmit a transmitted signal 106 thatcan be any of the signals according to any of the embodiments describedherein. Such embodiments include at least one receiver 102 that eitherreceives the transmitted signal 106 from each transmitter and/or atleast one transponder 104 that receives the transmitted signal andre-transmits a signal 108 that is a re-transmitted version of thetransmitted signal 106 back to a plurality of transceivers 98, accordingto any of ranging signals and systems described herein.

One example of a system according to this embodiment includes onetransceiver 98 (interrogator) that transmits a first interrogationsignal 106 to at least one transponder 104, which transponder can beattached to an object being tracked. The at least one transponderretransmits a second re-transmitted signal 108 that is received by, forexample second, third, and fourth transceivers 98 to determine aposition and a range of the transponder and the object being tracked.For example two transceivers can be grouped in pairs to do hyperbolicpositioning and three transceivers can be grouped to do triangulationposition to the transponder/object. It is appreciated that any of thetransceivers 98 can be varied to be the interrogator that sends thefirst transmit interrogation signal to the transponder 104 and that anyof the transceivers 98 can be varied to receive the re-transmittedsignal from the responder. It is appreciated that where ranging to thetransponder is being determined at the transceivers, the range andposition determination is a time of flight measurement between thesignals transmitted by the transponder 104 and received by at least twoof the transceivers 98.

Another example of a system according to this embodiment includes atleast one transponder 104, which can be attached to an object beingtracked. The at least one transponder 104 receives a signal 106 that istransmitted by any of at least first, second, third, and fourthtransceivers 98 (interrogators). The signal can be coded to ping atleast one of the transponders. It is appreciated that more than onetransponder 104 can be provided. It is appreciated that each transpondercan be coded to respond to a different ping of the transmitted signal106. It is appreciated that multiple transponders can be coded torespond to a same ping of the transmitted signal 106. Thus, it isappreciated that one transponder or any of a plurality of transpondersor a plurality of the transponders can be pinged by the signal 106transmitted by at least one of the transceivers 98. It is appreciatedthat multiple transceivers can be configured to send a signal 106 havinga same code/ping. It is also appreciated that each transceiver can beconfigured to send a transmitted signal having a different code/ping. Itis further appreciated that pairs or more of transceivers can beconfigured to send a signal having the same code/ping. It is alsoappreciated that pairs or more of the transponders can be configured torespond to a signal having the same code/ping. It is appreciated thatwhere the range to the transponder is being determined at thetransponder (the device being tracked), the range determination is atime difference of arrival measurement between the signal transmitted byat least two of the transceivers 98. For example, where the transponderis pinged by two of the transceivers 98 a hyperbolic positioning of thetransponder (object) can be determined. Where the transponder is pingedby three of the transceivers 98, triangulation positioning of thetransponder (object) can be determined.

Alternatively, instead of coding each signal with a ping, it isappreciated that according to some embodiments a precise time delay canbe introduced between signals transmitted by the transmitters and/ortransceivers. Alternatively, a precise time delay can be introducedbetween signals re-transmitted by the at least one transponder inresponse to receipt of the transmitted signal. With this arrangementpairs of transceivers can be used to accomplish 3D or hyperbolicpositioning or at least three transceivers can be used to performtriangular positioning according to any of the signals described herein.

Another example of a system according to this embodiment includes onetransmitter 96 that is a reference transmitter that provides a waveformby which the receivers 102 and/or transponders 104 correlate against tomeasure a delta in time of the time difference of arrival (TDOA) signalrelative to the reference transmitter 96. It is also appreciated thatthis embodiment of the system can use any pulse compressed signal.

Multiple Receivers and/or Transponders

Various embodiments of a system according to the invention can compriseat least one transmitter 96 or transceiver 98 that transmits atransmitted 106 signal and a plurality of receivers 102 or transponders104 that receive the transmitted signal from each transmitter ortransceiver, according to any of ranging systems and signals describedherein. Such embodiments include at least one transmitter 96 ortransceiver 98 that transmits the transmitted signal 106 and a pluralityof receivers 102 or transponders 104 that either receive the transmittedsignal 106 or receive and re-transmit a signal 108 that is are-transmitted version of the transmitted signal 106 back to the atleast one transceivers 98, according to any of ranging signals andsystems described herein.

It is appreciated that according to aspects of this embodiment atransmitter 96 can be attached to an object being tracked and cantransmit a first signal 106 to a plurality of receivers 102 to performtime of flight positioning and ranging from the transmitter to thereceiver. For example, where two receivers receive the transmittedsignal, hyperbolic positioning of the transmitter/object can beachieved. Alternatively or in addition, where at least three receiversreceive the transmitted signal 106, triangulation positioning to thetransmitter 96 and object can be achieved.

According to aspects of another embodiment, at least one transceiver 98can be attached to an object being tracked and can transmit a firstsignal 106 to a plurality of transponders 104 to perform positioning andranging from the transmitter to the receiver. For example, where twotransponders receive and re-transmit the transmitted signal 106,hyperbolic positioning of the transmitter/object can be achieved.Alternatively or in addition, where at least three transponders 104receive and re-transmit the transmitted signal 106, triangulationpositioning to the transceiver 98 and object can be achieved.

It is appreciated that any of the transponders can be varied to respondto the interrogator 98 that sends the first transmit interrogationsignal to the transponder 104. It is appreciated that the at least onetransponder 104 receives a signal 106 that is transmitted by thetransceivers 98 (interrogators). The signal can be coded to ping atleast one of the transponders. It is appreciated that each transpondercan be coded to respond to a different ping of the transmitted signal106. It is appreciated that multiple transponders can be coded torespond to a same ping of the transmitted signal 106. It is appreciatedthat one transponder or any of a plurality of transponders or aplurality of the transponders can be pinged by the signal 106transmitted by at least one transceivers 98. It is also appreciated thatpairs or more of the transponders can be configured to respond to asignal having the same code/ping.

Alternatively, instead of coding each signal with a ping, it isappreciated that according to some embodiments a precise time delay canbe introduced between signals re-transmitted by the transponders 104 inresponse to receipt of the transmitted signal. With this arrangementpairs of transponders can be used to accomplish hyperbolic positioningof the at least one transceiver or at least three transponders can beused to perform triangular positioning according to any of the signalsdescribed herein. It is also appreciated that this embodiment of thesystem can use any pulse compressed signal.

Hybrid Ranging Systems

Referring to FIG. 8, various embodiments of a system according to theinvention can comprise a plurality of transmitters that transmit atransmitted signal and a plurality of receivers that receive atransmitted signal according to any of the signals and systems disclosedherein. Various embodiments of a system according to the invention cancomprise a plurality of transceivers 98 that transmit a transmittedsignal and a plurality of transponders 104 that receive the transmittedsignal 106 and re-transmit the transmitted signal 108, according to anyof ranging signals and ranging systems described herein. It is furtherappreciated that the plurality of the transmitters 96 or transceiver 98can be coupled together either by a cable or a plurality of cables e.g.to create a wired mesh of transmitters or transceivers, or coupledtogether wirelessly to create a wireless mesh of transmitters ortransceivers. It is also appreciated that the plurality of the receivers102 or transponders 104 can be coupled together either by a cable or aplurality of cables e.g. to create a wired mesh of receivers ortransponders, or coupled together wirelessly to create a wireless meshof receivers or transponders. Still further it is appreciated that thesystem can comprise a mixture of plurality of transmitters andtransceivers and/or a mixture of a plurality of receivers ortransponders. It is appreciated that the mixture of the plurality oftransmitters and transceivers and/or the mixture of a plurality ofreceivers or transponders can be coupled together either by one or morecables or wirelessly or a combination of one or more cables andwirelessly. Such embodiments can be configured to determine range andpositioning to at least one object according to any of the signals andsystems that have been described herein.

According to the disclosure above regarding any of the TOF rangingsystems disclosed, it will be apparent that a TOF ranging system may becomprised of devices, any of which may transmit, receive, respond, orprocess signals associated with any of the foregoing TOF rangingsystems. In aspects and embodiments, any transceiver, interrogator,transponder, or receiver may determine TOF information in one or more ofthe manners discussed above in accordance with any of the TOF rangingsystems disclosed. Any transmitter, transceiver, interrogator, ortransponder may be the source of a signal necessary for determining theTOF information in one or more of the manners discussed above inaccordance with any of the TOF ranging systems disclosed.

It is appreciated that in embodiments, the exact position of signalgenerating and signal processing components may not be significant, butthe position of an antenna is germane to precise ranging, namely theposition and the location from which an electromagnetic signal istransmitted or received. Accordingly, the TOF ranging systems locationsdisclosed herein are typically configured to determine by the TOFranging to antenna positions and locations. For example, the exemplaryembodiments discussed above with respect to FIG. 2 and FIGS. 9 to 12have multi-antenna components, and it is also appreciated that any ofthe embodiments of interrogators and transponders as disclosed in FIGS.1-12 can have multiple antennas. In such example embodiments, and otherslike them, various components may be shared among more than one antennaand TOF ranging can be done to the multiple antenna components. Forexample, a single oscillator, modulator, combiner, correlator,amplifier, digitizer, or other component may provide functionality tomore than one antenna. In such cases, each of the multiple antennas maybe considered an individual TOF transmitter, receiver, interrogator, ortransponder, to the extent that associated location information may bedetermined for such antenna.

In aspects and embodiments, multiple antennas may be provided in asingle device to take advantage of spatial diversity. For example, anobject with any of the TOF ranging components embedded may have multipleantennas to ensure that at least one antenna may be unobstructed at anygiven time, for example as the orientation of the object changes. In oneembodiment, a wristband may have multiple antennas spaced at intervalsaround a circumference to ensure that one antenna may always receivewithout being obstructed by a wearer's wrist.

In aspects and embodiments, signal or other processing, such ascalculations, for example, to determine distances based on TOFinformation, and positions of TOF devices, may be performed on a TOFdevice or may be performed at other suitable locations or by othersuitable devices, such as, but not limited to, a central processing unitor a remote or networked computing device.

Other Examples

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system can be used to accomplish precise distancemeasurements, to accomplish multiple distance measurements formultilateration, to accomplish highly precise absolute TOF measurements,to accomplish precision localization of a plurality of transponders,transceivers, or receivers, or to accomplish ranging with a hyperbolictime difference of arrival methodology, or any other ranging orlocalization capability for which TOF measurements may be used.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system can use any pulse compressed signal.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, each transponder can be configured to detect a signalof a unique code and respond only to that unique code.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, a plurality of transmitters or transceivers can benetworked together and configured to transmit at regular, preciselytimed intervals, and a plurality of transponders or receivers can beconfigured to receive the transmissions and localize themselves via ahyperbolic time difference of arrival methodology.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, at least one transceiver is carried on a vehicle.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, at least one transceiver may be fixed to a person oranimal, or to clothing, or embedded in clothing, a watch, or wristband,or embedded in a cellular or smart phone or other personal electronicdevice, or a case for a cellular or smart phone or other personalelectronic device.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, transceivers can discover each other and make an alertregarding the presence of other transceivers. Such discovery and/oralerts may be triggered by responses to interrogation signals or may betriggered by enabling transceivers via an auxiliary wireless signal asdiscussed. For example, vehicles could broadcast a BLE signal thatactivates any TOF transceiver in its path and thereby discover humans,animals, vehicles, or other objects in its path. Similarly, a human,animal, or vehicle in the path may be alerted to the approachingvehicle. In another scenario, people with transceivers on their personmay be alerted to other people's presence, e.g., when joining a group orentering a room or otherwise coming in to proximity. In such a scenario,distance and location information may be provided to one or more of thepeople.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system can comprise a wireless network of wirelesstransponders in fixed locations, and wherein the element to be trackedincludes at least one transceiver that pings the wireless transponderswith coded pulses so that the transponders only respond and reply withprecisely coded pulses.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system further comprises a wireless network ofwireless transceivers or transponders in fixed locations that transmitor interrogate, and reply to each other, for purposes of measuring abaseline between the transceivers or transponders for calibrating thenetwork.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, an object to be tracked includes at least onetransceiver that is configured to transmit the first signal tointerrogate one of a plurality of transponders in the network, andwherein at least one transponder is configured to respond to the firstsignal and to transmit a signal to interrogate one or more othertransponders in the network, and wherein the one or more othertransponders emit a second signal that is received by the originalinterrogator-transceiver for purposes of calibration.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system comprises at least one transponder that isprogrammed to send a burst of data and its timing transmission andincluding data for purposes of revealing any of temperature, batterylife, other sensor data, and other characteristics of the transponder.

According to aspects and embodiments of any of the TOF ranging systemsdisclosed herein, the system can include wireless transpondersconfigured to send ranging signals between each of the transponders formeasuring distances between transponders.

Pick and Pack Application of Various Embodiments of Ranging Systems

Referring to FIG. 13, in accordance with various aspects and/orembodiments of the subject disclosure, there is illustrated an exampleof a system 710 and method for detecting a user's body movement incooperation with an industrial automation environment. It is also to beappreciated that the system can be used in a variety of environments tointerface with industrial machinery 112 or without industrial machinerysuch as for example for pick and pack work in fulfillment centers andwarehouses or combinations thereof. The system and method includesemploying a plurality of TOF transmitters 96 ortransceivers/interrogators 98 (depicted by an antenna) as have beendescribed herein that transmit and/or receive a signal 110 that detectsmovement of a transponder 114 mounted to a body part of a user. Any ofvarious embodiments of an interrogator, transponder, transmitter, andtransceivers that have been described herein may be used. Thetransponders hereinafter also referred to as TOF sensors, can be mountedto a body part for any of or any combination of: detecting movement of abody part of the user, ascertaining whether or not the movement of thebody part conforms to a recognized movement of the body part,interpreting the recognized movement of the body part as a performableaction, actuating industrial machinery to perform a performable actionbased on and in cooperation with the recognized movement of the bodypart and/or giving the worker real time feedback on their taskperformance.

The system includes a plurality of TOF transmitters 96 ortransceivers/interrogators 98 (depicted by an antenna) as has beendescribed herein that transmit and/or transmit and receive a signal 110for measuring movement of a transponder 114 mounted to a body part of auser. The system can be used to measure a position of the user in a pickand pack environment, or a position of a user such as a user's armproximate to and in cooperation with industrial machinery 112, such as arobotic arm, and proximate to the TOF sensors 96/98. The system mayfurther include at least one transponder 118 mounted to the industrialmachinery 112, such as a robotic arm, and proximate to the TOF sensors96/98. According to aspects of this embodiment, a controller can beconfigured to receive measurements of movement of the receivers ortransponders 114, 118 as measured by the transmitters ortransceivers/interrogators 96/98, to determine any or all of whether ornot the movement of the body part conforms with a recognized movement ofthe body part, to determine a precise position and location of thereceivers or transponders 114, 118, to predict movement of the humanlimb, to monitor movement and performance of a user such as in a pickand pack environment and provide feedback to the user, and to controlindustrial machinery such as the robotic arm 112 to perform an actionbased at least in part on instructions received from the industrialcontroller and a position of the receivers or transponders 114, 118attached to the user, to control the robotic arm to perform an actionbased at least in part on any of instructions received from theindustrial controller and a position of the receivers or transponders114, 118 so that the human and the robotic arm can work in cooperationand without risk or danger of harm to the human. It is also appreciatedthat the system can be configured to have a transmitter ortransceiver/interrogator on the robotic arm and a transponder ortransceiver/interrogator on the limb or appendage of a human so as tohave direct time of flight ranging between the robotic arm and the humanarm or limb.

According to aspects and embodiments, workers can for example beoutfitted with a small wristband or other personal digital device thatis configured as a transponder 114. The transponder device can beconfigured with feedback mechanisms such as colored LEDs, a simplemicrophone, a wireless beacon and/or a haptic feedback system (e.g.gyroscope) to provide feedback to the user. For example, the devicecould give the worker real time feedback on their task performance incontemporary pick and pack systems. The pick and pack systems could beconfigured with a variety of communication mechanisms such as forexample a laser pointer that directs the worker to the bin that theworker should place to or pick from. The system could be configured forexample such that as the worker moves towards a correct or incorrectmovement, the wristband (or other device) could signal this to the uservia any of the feedback mechanisms (e.g., a flashing green/red light andslow-weak/fast-intense pulses of the gyroscope). It is appreciated thatsome signals could be reserved for critical feedback (e.g., unsafeconditions) and other feedback signals could be used for routine taskfeedback (e.g., correct/incorrect placement). It is also appreciatedthat the system could be so configured such that if despite feedbackfrom the system the user still engages in some form of incorrect orunsafe behavior, the system can also interact with the equipmentinvolved (e.g., stopping it, moving it out of the user's space, etc.).It is also appreciated that the system and the transponder device can beconfigured such that users may be able to customize their preferredfeedback patterns to a certain extent (as determined by the systemoperator). It is further appreciated that the system can be used tomonitor and catalogue a user's performance for any of a variety ofpurposes such as analytics, training, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 14, in accordance with various aspects and/orembodiments of the subject disclosure, there is illustrated a furtherexample of an environment for determining the motion of industrialequipment and/or a user's body. The example environment of FIG. 14 isparticularly directed to pick and pack work in fulfillment centers,warehouses, etc. The system and method includes employing a plurality ofTOF transmitters 96 or transceivers/interrogators 98 (depicted by anantenna) as have been described herein that transmit and/or receivesignals to detect movement of a transponder 114 affixed to parts of auser or industrial machinery 112.

In the example of FIG. 14, the work to be tracked is the selection(picking) of items from bins 120 and placing the items in boxes(packing). The user's body motions and industrial machines 112 motionsmay be tracked and analyzed to determine from which bin 120 an item hasbeen taken and thereby identify the item picked by reference to adatabase of what items are stored in which bins 120. Furthertransponders 114 may be affixed to notches on a conveyor belt andthereby the system may determine where the item was placed, andtherefore in which box it was placed. Further, with the knowledge ofwhich items were placed in which boxes, the system, with the aid ofback-end databases and order processing information, may determine whichorder is in which box and may thereby further automate the process by,for example, affixing the proper shipping labels to the boxes.

It is appreciated that numerous variations on this example environmentare contemplated. With knowledge of the movement of items, users, andmachinery, the system could monitor for safety, accuracy, efficiency,etc. Transponders 114 could be affixed to individual boxes in additionto or instead of the conveyor belt, or the system could track conveyorbelt motion in an alternate manner. While tracking items out of bins,the system could also track items placed into bins and/or manageinventory. Transponders 114 could be affixed to individual items, whichcould further allow identification of the contents of a box even afterit is sealed closed.

While this particular example is for picking and packing, it isappreciated that the work to be tracked could include any environment orapplication. For example, the work monitored could be an assembly linefunction. The system could monitor the regular operation of the assemblyline for safety, accuracy, efficiency, and could also control or monitorfor options installed or incorporated into particular product builds,etc.

In accordance with yet further aspects or embodiments, the systemincludes time of flight transmitters and/or transceivers/interrogatorsand time of flight receivers or transponders (time of flight sensors) inany of the combinations and using any of the signals disclosed hereinfor constantly monitoring the movement performed by the user, fordetecting an appropriate movement performed by the user, for predictingmovement of the human limb, for monitoring movement and performance of auser such as in a pick and pack environment and to provide feedback tothe user, for controlling industrial machinery in combination withmovement of a user for demarcating a safety zone around the industrialequipment for appropriate movement performed by the user and forcooperating with the industrial equipment, and for controlling andactuating the industrial equipment to stay clear of the safety zoneand/or to cooperate with and interact with movement of the user.

It is appreciated that in accordance with aspects or embodiments, theTOF systems as have been discussed herein can be used to provide forinitial and ongoing engineering of robotic lines to eliminateinterference and optimize movement paths of industrial-scale robotsoperating in an industrial environment. The TOF systems would provide animprovement over systems that require large industrial robots on anassembly line to have to be placed precisely, which requires a greatdeal of integration effort and time ensuring that the robots don't clashin operation and that their paths have been optimized to maximizeproduction capacity. The TOF systems would provide an improvement oversystems that require the precise location of the robots to be checkedand fixed on a regular basis, where even small changes to the line canrequire near-complete reengineering of the entire solution. With the TOFsystems as have been discussed herein, interrogator and transponders canbe integrated at several points (i.e. on an end effector, one or morejoints) which will vary by application on each multi-axis robot. Datafrom these sensors can be fed to an optimization and machine learningsoftware suite, which can provide one or more sets of interferenceresolutions that optimize work flow for the line. A User Interface andstate machine could be provided that would allow users to plan andexecute this process in contextually-appropriate ways. The system couldbe configured based on the TOF measurements to resolve interferences andoptimize itself, and could also be configured to allow users to controlthe process. The system can also be configured to dynamically optimizeitself as ongoing changes to line configurations and robotic technologyare required, the system could dynamically optimize for these changeswith reduced integration and setup efforts.

It is appreciated that in accordance with aspects or embodiments, theTOF systems as have been discussed herein can be used to provide forlocation awareness in an automated industrial environment. With the TOFsystems as have been discussed herein, a baseline TOF interrogatorinfrastructure could be installed near important work areas, andtransponders can be integrated into various devices (e.g. a drill, apowered exoskeleton, a transport vehicle). Software could be providedfor automatic switching between modes of control for the devicedepending on the location of that tool. For example, a drill mightbecome inactive if taken more than two meters away from a workstation, avehicle might switch to different speed limits depending on itsproximity to certain areas in an automated production facility, and apowered exoskeleton might allow for different modes of activitydepending on proximity of certain workstations. Software could furtherallow users to tailor this mode switching to certain degrees as set bythose granted authority in the system (e.g., managers), and the systemcould also collect users' tailoring/feedback on the current controlschemes for representation to those granted authority in the system. Ananalytics engine could produce reports and visualizations for users tomake more informed decisions about control mode switching, error statesand optimization opportunities.

It is appreciated that in accordance with aspects or embodiments, theTOF systems as have been discussed herein can be used to provide for asystem that provides for precise assembly of large Machinery that hasmultiple subcomponents (e.g., a 100 meter long molding and assemblymachine). Some advantages are that such a system could provide forassembly of such machines within millimeter scale tolerances and allowusers to manage the assembly process intuitively and smoothly.Organizations could use TOF systems as disclosed herein to assemblelarge (100 m+) machinery to tolerance and specification before and afterit's taken apart for delivery to a facility. Such an arrangement couldprovide ease of assembly advantages as compared to processes thatinvolve weeks of intensive, expensive effort on site when the equipmentarrives.

Each subcomponent of the machinery could be instrumented withinterrogators and/or transponders that would measure precise rangesbetween these subcomponents at key points. Software could analyze andpresent the precise range data to users guide assembly processes in realtime, to make assessments on assembly quality, to make informeddecisions about assembly processes, and to store data for eachsubcomponent of the machinery to reassemble to tolerance based onmicro-location information and analytics.

According to aspects of one embodiment, the time of flight sensors ashave been disclosed herein can be used in industrial automationenvironments of large scale or where, due to distance and/oroverwhelming ambient noise, voice commands are futile, it is notuncommon for body movements (e.g., hand gestures, arm motion, or thelike) to be employed to direct persons in control of industrialequipment to perform tasks, such as directing a fork lift operator toload a pallet of goods onto a storage shelf, or to inform an overheadgantry operator to raise or lower, move to the right or left, backwardor forward, an oversized or heavy component portion (e.g., wing spar orengine) for attachment to the fuselage of an aircraft. These human hand,arm, body gestures, and/or finger gesticulations can have universalmeaning to human observers, and/or if they are not immediatelyunderstood, they typically are sufficiently intuitive that they caneasily be learned without a great investment in training, and moreoverthey can be repeated, by most, with a great deal of uniformity and/orprecision. In the same manner that a human observer can understandconsistently repeatable body motion or movement to convey secondarymeaning, a system 710 can also utilize human body movement, bodygestures, and/or finger gesticulations to have conveyed meaningfulinformation in the form of commands, and can therefore performsubsequent actions based at least in part on the interpreted bodymovement and the underlying command.

In accordance with one embodiment, TOF sensors can monitor or detectmotion associated with the torso of the user located proximate the TOFsensor. In accordance with another embodiment, TOF sensors can detect ormonitor motion associated with the hands and/or arms of the usersituated within the TOF sensors line of sight. In accordance withanother embodiment, TOF sensors can detect or monitor movementassociated with the hand and/or digits (e.g., fingers) of the userpositioned proximate to automated machinery.

It is understood that TOF sensors in conjunction or cooperation withother components (e.g., a controller and a logic component) can perceivemotion of an object in at least three-dimensions. In accordance withembodiments, a TOF sensor can perceive lateral body movement (e.g.,movement in the x-y plane) taking place within its line of sight, andalso discern body movement in the z-axis as well.

Additionally it is appreciated, in cooperation with further componentssuch as controller and/or associated logic component, a TOF sensor asdisclosed herein can gauge the velocity with which a body movement,gesticulation, or gesture is performed. For example, where the user isconfigured with one or more TOF sensors and is moving their hands withvigor or velocity, the time of flight sensors in conjunction with acontroller and/or logic component, can comprehend the velocity and/orvigor with which the user is moving their hands to connote urgency oraggressiveness. Accordingly, in one embodiment, TOF sensors can perceivethe vigor and/or velocity of the body movement. For instance, in anindustrial automated environment, where a forklift operator is receivingdirections from a colleague, the colleague can have initially commencedhis/her directions by gently waving his/her arm back and forth(indicating to the operator of the forklift that he/she is clear to movethe forklift in reverse). The colleague on perceiving that the forkliftoperator is reversing too rapidly and/or that there is a possibility ofa collision with on-coming traffic can either start waving his/her armback and forth with great velocity (e.g., informing the forkliftoperator to hurry up) or hold up their arm with great emphasis (e.g.,informing the forklift operator to come to an abrupt halt) in order toavoid the impending collision. According to aspects of embodiments ofthis disclosure, the systems disclosed herein can be used to interpretsuch hand commands and transmit instructions for example to a fork liftoperator, where the fork lift operator may not be able to see or hearinstructions from the human providing the instructions.

It is also appreciated that according to aspects of such embodiment, theTOF sensors in conjunction with a controller and/or logic component, candetect the sluggishness or cautiousness with which the user is movingtheir hands. Such time-of-flight measurements of sluggishness,cautiousness, or lack of emphasis can be interpreted by the controllerand/or logic component to convey uncertainty, warning, or caution, andonce again can provide instructions for previously perceived bodymovements or future body movements. Thus, continuing with the foregoingforklift operator example, the colleague can, after having waved his/herarm back and forth with great velocity, vigor, and/or emphasis can nowcommence moving his/her arm in a much more languid or tentative manner,indicating to the forklift operator that caution should be used toreverse the forklift.

It is appreciated without limitation or loss of generality that TOFsensors, controller (and associated logic component), and industrialmachinery 112 can be located in disparate locations within an automatedindustrial environment. For instance, in accordance with an embodiment,TOF sensors and industrial machinery 112 can be situated in closeproximity to one another, while controller and associated logiccomponent can be located in an environmentally controlled (e.g.,air-conditioned, dust free, etc.) environment. In accordance with afurther embodiment, time of flight sensors, a controller and logiccomponents can be located in an environmentally controlled safeenvironment (e.g., a safety control room) while industrial machinery canbe positioned in an environmentally hazardous environment.

It can be appreciated from the foregoing, the sequences and/or series ofbody/movements, signals, gestures, or gesticulations utilized by thesubject application can be limitless, and as such a complex commandstructure or set of commands can be developed for use in a warehouseand/or industrial environment. Moreover, one need only contemplateestablished human sign language (e.g. American Sign Language) to realizethat a great deal of complex information can be conveyed merely throughuse of hand movements. Accordingly, as will have been observed inconnection with the foregoing, in particular contexts, certain gestures,movements, motions, etc. in a sequence or set of commands can act asmodifiers to previous or prospective gestures, movements, motions,gesticulations, etc.

According to aspects of certain embodiments, a controller and/or logiccomponent can further be configured to distinguish valid body movement(or patterns of body movement) intended to convey meaning from invalidbody movement (or patterns of body movement) not intended to communicateinformation, parse and/or interpret recognized and/or valid bodymovement (or patterns of body movement), and translate recognized and/orvalid body movement (or patterns of body movement) into a command orsequence of commands or instructions necessary to actuate or effectuateindustrial machinery to perform tasks. For example, to aid a controllerand/or associated logic component in differentiating valid body movementfrom invalid or unrecognized body movement, a controller and/or logiccomponent can consult a persisted library or dictionary ofpre-established or recognized body movements (e.g., individual handgestures, finger movement sequences, etc.) in order to ascertain orcorrelate the body movement supplied by, and received from, TOF sensorswith recognized body movement, and thereafter to utilize the recognizedbody movement to interpret whether or not the recognized body movementis capable of one or more performable action a warehouse environmentand/or in cooperation with industrial machinery 112.

It should be noted without limitation or loss of generality that alibrary or dictionary of pre-established or recognized body movementsand translations or correlations thereof to commands or sequences ofcommands can be persisted to a memory or storage media. While storagedevices (e.g., memory, storage media, and the like) are not depicted,typical examples of these devices include computer readable mediaincluding, but not limited to, an ASIC (application specific integratedcircuit), CD (compact disc), DVD (digital video disk), read only memory(ROM), random access memory (RAM), programmable ROM (PROM), floppy disk,hard disk, EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory),memory stick, and the like.

In order to facilitate communication between the various and disparatelylocated component parts of any of the herein disclosed systems, anetwork topology or network infrastructure can be utilized. Typicallythe network topology and/or network infrastructure can include anyviable communication and/or broadcast technology, for example, wiredand/or wireless modalities and/or technologies can be utilized toeffectuate the subject application. Moreover, the network topologyand/or network infrastructure can include utilization of Personal AreaNetworks (PANs), Local Area Networks (LANs), Campus Area Networks(CANs), Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), extranets, intranets, theInternet, Wide Area Networks (WANs)—both centralized and/ordistributed—and/or any combination, permutation, and/or aggregationthereof.

Having described above several aspects of at least one embodiment, it isto be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of thisdisclosure and are intended to be within the scope of the invention.Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way ofexample only, and the scope of the invention should be determined fromproper construction of the appended claims, and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: at least one first radiofrequency transceiver configured to be mounted to a body part of a user;a plurality of interrogators configured to determine a position of theat least one first radio frequency transceiver; and at least onecontroller to track, using the determined position of the at least onefirst radio frequency transceiver, movement of the body part of the userwhile picking items from, and/or placing items into, a plurality ofbins.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one feedbackmechanism to provide feedback to the user in picking items from and/orplacing items into the plurality of bins.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the at least one feedback mechanism is configured to signal tothe user a correct one of the plurality of bins to pick an item fromand/or to place an item into.
 4. The system of claim 2, wherein the atleast one feedback mechanism is configured to signal to the user that anitem has been correctly picked and/or correctly placed.
 5. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the at least one feedback mechanism is configured tosignal to the user that an item has been incorrectly picked and/orincorrectly placed.
 6. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least onefeedback mechanism provides an indication of an unsafe condition.
 7. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein the at least one feedback mechanism compriseshaptic feedback.
 8. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least onefeedback mechanism comprises at least one light emitting diode.
 9. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the at least one first radio frequencytransceiver is affixed to a wristband configured to be worn by the user.10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one second radiofrequency transceiver mounted to a portion of a robot, wherein theplurality of interrogators are configured to determine a position of theat least one second radio frequency transceiver, and wherein the atleast one controller is configured to track, using the determinedposition of the at least one second radio frequency transceiver,movement of the portion of the robot.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the at least one controller is configured to track the positionof the body part of the user relative to the position of the portion ofthe robot.
 12. The system of claim 10, comprising at least one feedbackmechanism to provide feedback to the user about the user's proximity tothe portion of the robot.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the atleast one controller is configured to stop movement of the portion ofthe robot based on the determined position of the body part of the userrelative to the determined position of the portion of the robot.
 14. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the at least one controller is configured tomove the portion of the robot away from the body part of the user basedon the determined position of the body part of the user relative to thedetermined position of the portion of the robot.
 15. A systemcomprising: at least one first radio frequency transceiver configured tobe mounted to a body part of a user; at least one second radio frequencytransceiver mounted to a portion of a robot; a plurality ofinterrogators configured to determine a position of the at least onefirst radio frequency transceiver and configured to determine a positionof the at least one second radio frequency transceiver; and at least onecontroller configured to track, using the determined position of the atleast one first radio frequency transceiver, movement of the body partof the user, and configured to track, using the determined position ofthe at least one second radio frequency transceiver, movement of theportion of the robot relative to the movement of the body part of theuser.
 16. The system of claim 15, comprising at least one feedbackmechanism to provide feedback to the user about the position of the bodypart relative to the position of the portion of the robot.
 17. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the at least one controller is configured tostop movement of the portion of the robot based on the determinedposition of the body part of the user relative to the determinedposition of the portion of the robot.
 18. The system of claim 15,wherein the at least one controller is configured to move the portion ofthe robot away from the body part of the user based on the determinedposition of the body part of the user relative to the determinedposition of the portion of the robot.
 19. The system of claim 16,wherein the at least one feedback mechanism comprises haptic feedback.20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one feedback mechanismcomprises at least one light emitting diode.
 21. The system of claim 15,wherein the at least one first radio frequency transceiver is affixed toa wristband configured to be worn by the user.
 22. The system of claim15, wherein the at least one controller is configured to track, usingthe determined position of the at least one first radio frequencytransceiver, movement of the body part of the user while picking itemsfrom, and/or placing items into, a plurality of bins.
 23. The system ofclaim 22, comprising at least one feedback mechanism to provide feedbackto the user in picking items from and/or placing items into theplurality of bins.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least onefeedback mechanism is configured to signal to the user a correct one ofthe plurality of bins to pick an item from and/or to place an item into.25. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one feedback mechanismis configured to signal to the user that an item has been correctlyplaced and/or correctly picked.
 26. The system of claim 23, wherein theat least one feedback mechanism is configured to signal to the user thatan item has been incorrectly placed and/or incorrectly picked.
 27. Thesystem of claim 23, wherein the at least one feedback mechanism providesan indication of an unsafe condition.
 28. A method comprising:determining a position of at least one first radio frequency transceivermounted to a body part of a user using a plurality of interrogators; andtracking movement of the body part of the user while picking items from,and/or placing items into, a plurality of bins using the determinedposition of the at least one first radio frequency transceiver.
 29. Themethod of claim 28, further comprising providing feedback to the user inpicking items from and/or placing items into the plurality of bins. 30.A method comprising: determining a position of at least one first radiofrequency transceiver mounted to a body part of a user using a pluralityof interrogators; determining a position of at least one second radiofrequency transceiver mounted to a portion of a robot using theplurality of interrogators; tracking, using the determined position ofthe at least one first radio frequency transceiver, movement of the bodypart of the user; and tracking, using the determined position of the atleast one second radio frequency transceiver, movement of the portion ofthe robot relative to the movement of the body part of the user.